This has to qualify as the strangest story I’ve read in awhile:
(CNN) — In just a few short weeks, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach could wake up at his home in Englewood, New Jersey, with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi camped a few feet from his front lawn.
The authoritarian ruler of Libya is rumored to be planning to stay in an air-conditioned tent on the front lawn of a house owned by the Libyan Mission when he attends the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September.
Members of the predominately Orthodox Jewish Englewood community are less than enthused about a visit from a leader who has made anti-Zionist statements in the past. The recent release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber to Libya has heightened the animosity.
On Monday, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, called for the U.S. Department of State to restrict Gadhafi’s travel to the area around U.N. headquarters in New York City, saying in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton he “was particularly concerned by news reports indicating that [Gadhafi] plans to stay in New Jersey, where the families of many Pan Am 103 victims reside.”
A representative from the Libyan Mission in New York would not confirm Gadhafi will stay in Englewood, only that he is scheduled to come to New York.
Gadhafi has a history of setting up his extensive tent when visiting other countries, including Russia and France. Media reports have said that his request to pitch his tent in Central Park had been denied, and the New Jersey property was a likely second choice.
What a strange, strange man.
Senator Lautenberg should contact the Englewood mayor and use “Kelo” eminent domain authority to transfer Kaddafi’s property to the Victims of Pan Am 103 memorial committee.
Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another to further economic development. The case arose from the condemnation by New London, Connecticut, of privately owned real property so that it could be used as part of a comprehensive redevelopment plan. The Court held in a 5–4 decision that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified such redevelopment plans as a permissible “public use” under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
That should tie up Kaddafi’s plans for a New Jersey tent party.